Chapter 41 The Debate Between "Problems and Doctrines"

During the New Culture Movement, China's new intellectuals eagerly sought truth from the West and took new ideological weapons.All kinds of new ideas poured into China like a tide.After the October Revolution in Russia, Marxism also began to spread among advanced intellectuals. After the "May 4th" and "June 3rd", workers went on strike, the business community went on strike, the struggle deepened day by day, and Marxism began to combine with the labor movement.The new cultural united front centered on the "New Youth" group also began to split. In July 1919, Hu Shi published the article "Study More Questions, Talk Less About "Doctrine"", which aroused the debate on "questions and doctrines". the first round of the conflict". ②

Hu Shi was originally a person who paid attention to politics.When he was at Cornell University, he not only took politics and economics courses for one-third of the class hours, he was very interested in American political activities and political systems, but also paid close attention to domestic and international politics. defend.But when he returned to China in 1917, he had been "forced to go to Liangshan" and walked on the road of literary revolution.Therefore, he "made up his mind not to talk about politics for 20 years, and wanted to create an innovative foundation for China's political construction in terms of ideology, literature and art." ③At the end of 1918, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others founded "Weekly Review", which was a political publication. Hu Shi was also one of the founders, but he only wrote a few novels and literature, and did not talk much about politics.In June of the following year, because of Chen Duxiu's arrest, Hu Shi took over to edit "Weekly Review", so he felt that he had to talk about politics.Why? He stated in his own words:

At that time, the Department of Security and Fukuoka was in its heyday, and the spoils sharing conference in Shanghai had not yet disbanded.However, the "new" elements in the country kept silent about specific political issues, but talked about anarchism and Marxism.I couldn't stand it anymore, I couldn't bear it—because I was a believer in experimentalism—so I wanted to talk about politics angrily. ④ That's why the article "Study More Questions, Talk Less about "isms"" came out.This is just Hu Shi's "introduction to political theory."It said three things:

First, it is extremely easy to talk about nice-sounding "isms", something that a cat or a dog can do, something that a parrot and a gramophone can do. Second, it is useless to talk about "isms" imported from abroad. Third, it is very dangerous to lean toward "isms" on paper.This mantra can easily be used by shameless politicians to do all kinds of harmful things. Hu Shi's article aroused criticism from Li Dazhao, Lan Gongwu and others.At that time, schools in Beijing were on summer vacation, and Li Dazhao left Beijing for Wufeng Mountain in Changli.After reading this article by Hu Shi, he immediately swiped his pen and wrote the open letter "Revisiting Issues and Doctrines" to refute Hu Shi's views.Li Dazhao publicly stated that he "likes to talk about Bolshevism"; Hope the problem is solved.Then, Hu Shi wrote "Three Discussions on Issues and Doctrine" and "Four Discussions on Issues and Doctrine", refuting the claims of Li Dazhao and others, and conducted a more in-depth discussion on "methods of inputting academic theories".However, on August 30, when No. 37 of the "Weekly Review" was being printed, the secret police of the Beiyang warlord government suddenly visited, sealed up the newspaper and confiscated their property, and the "Four Essays" published in this issue also failed In the belly of the dead, only a small amount of newspapers came out.So the debate on "problems and doctrines" ceased.

The debate on "problems and doctrines" back then had different ideological beliefs, but in fact it was mainly an ideological and academic research and discussion, not a disagreement of a political nature. From Hu Shi’s point of view, his first article overemphasized specific practical issues while obliterating the importance of doctrinalism, which was theoretically unreasonable.Therefore, at the end of the article, it also admitted that "we should study all kinds of theories and doctrines", and pointed out: But I hope that Chinese public opinion experts will put all "isms" behind their heads and use them as reference materials instead of talking about them as signboards, and don't ask people with half-knowledge to pick up these half-baked doctrines and make them catchphrases.

This is indeed the right words.Just think about the situation before and after the "May 4th Movement", when "isms" were flying everywhere in China's ideological circles. Some people "typed nouns first, but did not introduce the meaning of the nouns." ; ⑤ Some people advocate this kind of doctrine today and believe in that kind of doctrine tomorrow.Therefore, after Li Dazhao criticized the shortcomings of Hu Shi's negationist theory, he "also admitted that our recent statements are too much talk on paper and less about practical issues. In the future, he vowed to do practical things."

Hu Shi believed in pragmatism.He emphasized that "the first duty of a public opinion expert is to carefully examine the real situation of society. All academic theories and all 'isms' are tools for this investigation." It is naturally correct to advocate starting from reality.However, based on pragmatism, he denied the revolutionary method and road of "fundamental solution", and only promoted his improved road of "solution to this specific problem", which was one-sided and even wrong, so Li Dazhao's criticism of him It is very correct.This is where Marxists differ from pragmatists or libertarians.Li Dazhao also borrowed the words of the Japanese "Daily News" and pointed out that Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu at the time "are the orthodox ideas of Chinese democracy. On the one hand, we must fight against the old obsessive ideas, and on the other hand, we must prevent the trend of Russian Bolshevism."This clearly clarifies the essence of Hu Jianian's thoughts in his youth. It not only has a positive revolutionary aspect against patriarchal autocratic obsessive thoughts, but also resists and opposes Marxism, which is the duality characteristic of liberals.

Li Dazhao's articles not only showed his clear stand as an early Marxist, but also showed that early Marxists began to pay attention to the tendency of theory and practice.He pointed out: A socialist, in order to make his doctrine have some influence in the world, must study how to apply his ideals as much as possible to the reality around him.So today's socialism contains many attempts to translate his spirit into a practical situation that meets current needs.This can prove the nature of doctrine, the original possibility of practical application.But if it is used by people who specialize in empty talk, it becomes empty.

At that time, Marxism was not long after it was introduced into China, and it was still far from the reality of Chinese society. Many speeches and writings promoting Marxism were still quite naive, and dogmatism and empty talk were quite common.Under such circumstances, Li Dazhao's insights are particularly valuable. After Li and Lan's criticism and discussion, Hu Shi's understanding also changed somewhat.He admitted that doctrines should not be underestimated, and changed his original "talk less about doctrines" to "less talk about abstract doctrines"; He also said: "Although I don't agree with people talking about abstract doctrine nowadays, I am very much in favor of the cause of importing theories and trends of thought." Hu Shi felt that importing academic theories was not an easy task. Do great harm."Therefore, he advocated that when importing a theory, one should pay attention to the current situation of a certain theory; .These three methods, he summed up and called "historical attitude".It can be seen that he is completely an attitude of academic thought research.

Hu Shi does not approve of Marxism, but his article also has an attitude of objective research.He still knows quite a lot about Marxism, and has read more books than those who talk about Marxism; and he calls himself "the person who studies Marxism".Starting from this attitude of academic research, Hu Shi also affirmed Marx’s historical materialism, pointing out: The materialist view of history points out the importance of material civilization and economic organization in the history of human evolution and society, opens a new era in history, opens countless paths for sociology, and opens many paths for political theory: this is the meaning of this theory It is not only the relationship of this doctrine itself in the history of the socialist movement.

He even believes that "the inevitable realization of socialism is no longer a problem" because there are already "socialist bases"; That is, Hegel's stinking philosophy of history" is unnecessary.Hu applied this "obsolete theory", and in fact denied historical materialism, and only affirmed its historical significance.Later, when he gave a lecture on "The Future of Philosophy", he also said: "The earliest philosophers who talked about the average yield of well fields were included in the history of philosophy. Why are the greater ones like Marx, Bruton, and Henry George?" Can social theory occupy a higher position in the history of philosophy?" ⑥ also only affirms Marx's "greater social theory" in a historical sense. What Hu Shi disapproved of or opposed was the Marxist theory of class struggle.He said: Another example is the theory of class war, pointing out the reasons why the propertied class and the proletariat cannot stand side by side, which is of course extremely important in the history of the socialist movement and the history of the development of the Labor Party.But this kind of theory tends too much to affirm "class self-consciousness". On the one hand, it cultivates a kind of class hatred invisibly, which not only makes laborers believe that capitalists are inseparable enemies, but also makes many capitalists feel that labor is a real thing. A kind of enemy.As a result of this kind of hostility, the two major forces in society that should and can help each other have become two opposing enemy camps, making many construction relief methods impossible, and causing many unnecessary historical events to be staged in history. tragedy. Hu Shi's argument obviously has loopholes and contradictions. "History" naturally includes countless "tragedies" that were staged due to "class hatred" before the emergence of Marxism. What doctrine should be responsible? Should it also be included in the "class struggle theory" of Marxism? Is it on the account? Historical struggles exist objectively. If cause and effect are reversed, it is naturally difficult to justify it. Shortly after this "problem and doctrine" debate, "New Youth" relocated to Shanghai for editing.The colleagues in Beijing gradually sent less manuscripts, and there were some disputes over the editorial policy of "New Youth". ⑦ Afterwards, the "New Youth" group disbanded invisibly. In 1921, the Communist Party of China was established.The growing labor movement and mass struggle, and the rapid spread of Marxism accelerated the process of differentiation of the new cultural united front.Hu Shi sighed deeply about this, saying: "I am very dissatisfied with today's ideology and literature. The number of slaves of Confucius, Qiu and Zhu Xi has decreased, but a group of slaves of Marx and Klopotkin have been added; outdated classicism has been overthrown. However, it has been replaced by all kinds of superficial neo-classicism. We cannot avoid the crime of 'advocating intentions but creating powerlessness'." Therefore, he had no choice but to "look back on this wrong road". ⑧ ① Hu Shi's "Research More Questions, Less Talk about "isms"", published in "Weekly Review" No. 31, published on July 20, 1919.Then, Li Dazhao wrote "Re-discussing Questions and Doctrines"; Lan Zhi wrote "Questions and Doctrines" first, and discussed them with Hu Shi.Hu Shi wrote "Three Essays on Issues and Doctrines" and "Four Essays on Issues and Doctrines" for his defense.These articles were later included in "Hu Shi Wen Cun", Shanghai Yadong Library, December 1921 edition, Volume 2.Where the source is not indicated in this quotation, see these articles. ②Chapter 9 of "Hu Shi's Oral Autobiography" (translated and annotated by Tang Degang) has a subtitle, "The Controversy between Questions and Doctrines: The First Round of Conflicts Between Me and Marxists", see the first edition of Taipei Biographical Literature Publishing House in March 1981, p. 195 pages. ③Refer to "My Forked Road", originally published in the seventh issue of "Efforts" weekly report, published on June 18, 1922; later included in "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", for quotations, see Shanghai Yadong Library, March 6, 1929, Volume 3, p. 96.Rearranged by the Taipei Far East Book Company in 1953, this article was deleted after the author edited it. ④ same as note ③. (The following are all three edition notes) ⑤ Lu Xun: "Bian", see "The Complete Works of Lu Xun", Beijing People's Literature Publishing House, 1981 edition, Vol. 4, p. 87. ⑥ See the manuscript of "Hu Shi's Diary", Taipei Yuanliu Publishing Co., Ltd. December 1990 edition, Volume 8, June 3, 1929. ⑦Refer to "A Few Letters About "New Youth"", see "Modern Publishing Historical Materials Series A", edited by Zhang Jinglu, pp. 7-16. ⑧ Same as Note ③, pp. 101-102.